Water-cooling towers



Dec. 27, 1955 c. H. RICHARDS 2,728,565

4 WATER-COOLING TOWERS Filed April 50, 1953 4 Sheets-Sheet l Dec. 27, 1955 Filed April 30, 1953 C. H. RICHARDS WATER-COOLING TOWERS 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 Dec. 27, 1955 c. H. RICHARDS WATER-COOLING TOWERS 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed April 30, 1953 United States Patent "C WATER-COOLING TOWERS Charles Henry Richards, London, England, assignor to L. G. Mouchel & Partners, Limited, London, England, a company of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Application April 30, 1953, Serial No. 352,113

Claims priority, application Great Britain December 2, 1952 6 Claims. (Cl. 261-108) This invention relates to water-cooling towers.

In the construction of internal stacks of water-cooling towers as hitherto proposed it has been found that in order to support the drip bars therein it has been found necessary to employ many upright posts and supporting members to carry horizontal bearers for the drip bars.

In order to overcome this ditficulty in accordance with the present invention the drip bars are supported in or on panel members which may be assembled in groups or walls held firmly together.

These groups of panel members may themselves be so constructed as to form bearers which are supported on the necessary supporting members, such as grillage beams and columns within the tower.

The panel members may be disposed vertically or at similar or dilierent angles with the vertical in one or more planes, parallel or not. The ends or centres or intermediate parts of the drip bars may be supported in holes of requisite shape in the panel members or on brackets secured to the face of the panel members.

The bearers thus formed of panel members may be disposed radially in the tower or in parallel or other relationship in the tower.

The panel members and/ or the bearers or columns may be formed of reinforced or pre-stressed concrete.

The arrangement of the drip bars may be such that the water from a drip bar falls on a drip bar or drip bars placed vertically immediately or at some distance below it.

Two forms of device made in accordance with the invention are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Fig. 1 is an elevation of part of one form of panel.

Fig. 2 is an elevation of part of a second form of panel,

Fig. 3 is a section of a detail at the top of either of the forms of panel illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2, and

Fig. 4 is a section of a detail at the base thereof;

Fig. 5 is a perspective of one form of assemblage of the said panels.

Fig. 6 is part of a plan of a broken water-cooling tower to which the invention has been applied radially,

Fig. 7 is part of a plan of a water-cooling stack to which the invention has been applied in vertically parallel planes.

Fig. 8 is a part of the vertical section of the watercooling stack illustrated in Fig. 7,

Fig. 9 illustrates a cross-section of a drip bar end.

The devices illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2 are panel members of reinforced or prestressed concrete suitably reinforced with steel rods or wires 2, 3 forming a mesh within each of the said panels 1. The panels 1 are formed of oblong or rhombus shape of, for example, 1' 8" in breadth and 6 3" in height but may be of smaller or larger dimension depending upon such factors as for example the horizontal or vertical spacing of the drip bars or laths.

2,728,565 Patented Dec. 27, 1955 The holes5 in the panel for the ends of drip bars or laths may be any suitable shape, triangular as shown or circular for example to fit similarly shaped drip bars or laths, or square with their sides at an angle to the horizontal plane.

The drip bars or laths 8 are formed of timber or other suitable material and may be of such cross-section as to allow their ends to fit or to be shaped to fit into the holes aforesaid.

In assembly the lower ends 12 of the panels 1 are placed centrally between the projecting reinforcement links 24 of a supporting beam such as the beam 9, as shown in Fig. 4.

The upper ends 14 of the panels are positioned in a template formed by the shuttering 18 of a beam such as the beam 10, Fig. 3, reinforced as at 22. Metal brackets 19 are bolted at 20 through a hole 5 in the panel 1 to support the shuttering 18 between props (not shown).

The bottoms 12 of the panels 1 are grouted at 23 with the reinforcement links 24 of the supporting beam 9.

The tops 14 of the panels 1 which may have the reinforcement 2, 3 projecting are cast in with the beam 10 when the shuttering 18 is filled with concrete. There may be one or any number of rows of panels positioned vertically above each other with intermediate beams 16 between successive rows.

A groove or recess may be cast in the top of beams 9 and 10 to position the bottoms 12 of the panels 1.

In one arrangement (Figs. 6 and 8) beams 9, 10 and 16 are disposed radially in the water-cooling tower 25 and the ring beams 15 and 28 are disposed coaxially with regard to the central axis of the tower. The beams 9 are supported by columns 13.

The pre-cast panels 1 thus form walls within the tower 25 which support the drip bars 8 transversely horizontally, and the drip bars 8 are disposed in such a way that in any panel 1 there may be two horizontal rows of drip bars 8 adjacent to each other with an interval of two horizontal rows of orifices in the panel succeeding left vacant for subsequent insertion of drip bars in the succession thereof forming the annuli of drip bars in the stack that is to say the drip bars or laths in successive pairs of horizontal rows of holes in each panel project on opposite sides of the panel as illustrated in Fig. 3. The panels may be provided with lateral recesses 27 shaped like a half a hole 5 in order that a drip bar end may be inserted in a complete hole 5 formed by adjacent panels.

In a modified form of arrangement in Figs. 7 and 8 in a water cooling tower 25' the beams supporting the panels are arranged in parallel relationship instead of radially and ring beams such as 27' connect the ends of the parallel beams. Individually panels 1a supporting the ends of shorter drip bars or laths at the periphery of the stack are seated on beam 27' in staggered formation parallel to panels 1.

It will be seen that details of the construction may be varied in many ways without departing from the scope of the invention, for example, it may be applied to cooling towers having shells 25 of square formation in plan.

What I desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

l. A water cooling tower comprising a plurality of horizontally spaced panel members with their upper and lower ends cast in with supporting beams and having apertures therein and drip bars extending between adjacent pairs of such panel members and having their ends extending into said apertures.

2. A water cooling tower comprising a plurality of horizontally spaced panel members having apertures therein and drip bars extending between adjacent pairs of such panel members and having their ends extending into said apertures, the said panel members being arranged in assembled, edgewise aligned groups firmly held together at their upper and lower edges to form perforated walls having an unbroken elevation, the said panel members having their ends cast in with horizontal supporting beams.

3. A water cooling tower comprising a plurality of horizontally spaced panel members having apertures therein and drip bars extending between adjacent pairs of such panel members and having their ends extending into said apertures, the said panel members being vertically disposed in the tower and having their ends cast in with horizontal supporting beams.

4. A water cooling tower comprising a plurality of horizontally spaced panel members having apertures therein and drip bars extending between adjacent pairs of such panel members and having their ends extending into said apertures, the said panel members being vertically disposed and radially arranged in the tower and having their ends cast in with horizontal supporting beams.

5. A water cooling tower comprising a plurality of horizontally spaced panel members having apertures therein and drip bars extending between adjacent pairs of such panel members and having their ends extending into said apertures, the said panel members having reinforcements and being disposed in the tower with their reinforcements at an angle to the vertical, and having their ends cast in with horizontal supporting beams.

6. A water cooling tower comprising a plurality of horizontally spaced panel members having apertures therein and drip bars extending between adjacent pairs of such panel members and having their ends extending into said apertures, the said panel members having reinforcements and being arranged in parallel in the tower with their reinforcements at an angle to the vertical and having their ends cast in with horizontal supporting beams.

References Cited in the file of this patent FOREIGN PATENTS Great Britain Feb. 25, 1947 

